The Harlem public-school building that critics say is too overcrowded to accommodate a new charter school actually has 15 percent fewer students than anticipated, according to a legal complaint.
Papers filed by the Success Academy charter network say that when the Bloomberg administration approved moving one of Success’s middle schools into PS 149 last year, the public school was projected to host 387 students.
But enrollment has reached just 327, says the complaint filed with the state Education Department.
Nevertheless, the de Blasio administration is blocking the move,claiming it would result in the displacement of too many current students.
“I call on Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor [Carmen] Fariña to correct these inaccurate statements,” said Success Academy CEO Eva Moskowitz.
“I will assume that they were simply misinformed rather than deliberately making false statements to exploit concern for special-education students. I will reach a less generous conclusion, however, if they fail to correct their inaccurate statements.”
The PS 149 building at 41 W. 117th St. houses three schools: the regular district public school; 82 special-education students in the Mickey Mantle school and a Success Academy elementary school.
To make room for the Success Academy Harlem Central middle school this fall, the charter network was going to give up 13 of its elementary classrooms.
The charter middle school was also going to utilize three classrooms that the Mantle school was going to phase out over five years.
Administration officials said the moves had to be opposed because they were too disruptive.
Fariña’s office declined to comment on Moskowitz’s latest comments, citing the pending litigation that Moscowitz filed in a bid to overturn the city’s decision.
But the administration defended its decision to block the charter middle school — one of three Success Academy facilities approved under the Bloomberg administration and yanked by de Blasio’s.
“Our goal is to give a voice to students who have lacked it in the past — our neediest children. The students at this school are ones with autism, severe emotional challenges and other disabilities. We believe in serving them and standing up for them,” said Department of Education spokesman Devon Puglia.